Burglar-proof side-door bracket.



J. J AGKBR'. BURGLAR PROOF sum noon BRACKET. APPLICATION IILED MAY 9. 1910.

982,341. Patented Jan. 24, 1911.

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J. J. AGKER.

BUB'GLAR PROOF SIDE DOOR BRACKET. "APPLICIIATIOR FILED mu 9, 1910.

Patented Jan. 24, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES FATENT OFFICE.

JULIUS J. ACKER, OF HORTON, KANSAS, ASSIGNOR F FIFTY-DIVE ONE-HUNDREDTHS T0 WALTER P. MURPHY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND TWENTY-FOUR AND ONE- I'IALF ONE-HUNDREDTHS T0 CYRUS I1. BUNDY, 01? JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

BURGLAR-PROOF SIDE-DOOR BRACKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 24, 1911.

Original application filed August 14, 1909, Serial No. 512,782. Divided and this application filed May 9, 1910. Serial N0. 560,338.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JULIUS J. Acimu, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of the city of Horton, county of Brown, and

State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful Burglar-Proof Side-Door Bracket, of which the following is a specification.

The subject-matter of the present invention is divided out of an application for Lettels Patent for an improvement in burglar proof side door brackets and locks, Serial No. 512,782, filed by me on August let, .1909.

The invention relates to car doors. and more particularly to outside doors for freight cars.

It has for its principal object to prevent the burglarizing of freight cars, and to attain certain other advantages hereinafter more fully appearing.

The invention consists in the parts and in the arrangements and combinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings which form part of this specification and wherein like symbols refer to like parts wherever they occur, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a freight car adjacent to the door opening, the door being equipped according to my invention and shown in closed position; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view, partly in section and on an enlarged scale, showing the lower edge portion of the door and a guiding and retaining bracket cooperating therewith; Fig. 8 is a bottom end view of the outer member of the door guide and retaining bracket; Fig. 4 is a bottom end view of the inner member of the door guide and retainingbracket; Fig. 5 is a section on the line S 5 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 2 with the outer member of the guiding and retaining bracket removed.

In the drawings the side portion of an ordinary box car 1 adjacent to the door opening is shown. Suspended from a horizontal trackway 2 which is secured on the side of the car above the door opening is an outside door 3 which can be of any ordinary construction. The door is closed against a vertical strip 4: or other suitable front stop which is secured on the side of the car adjacent to the side of the opening. The bottom edge portion of the door is guided and held from swinging away from the side of the car by brackets 5, 6, secured to the side of opposite sides thereof so as to be located at the front and rear edge portions, respectively, of the door when it is closed. To prevent the wooden sheathing from wearing away, a metal rubbing strip 7 is secured on the outer face of the (1001' along the bottom edge portion thereof so as to bear against the brackets 5, 6.

The guide and retaining brackets 5, (3, each comprise an inner member or casting 8 which is adapted to be secured on the car body and an outer member or casting 9 which is slidably fitted on said inner member. The inner member comprises a plate which is perforated for the securing bolts 10 which are passed through the side sill 11 from the inner side thereof, as shown more clearly in Fig. 5, or through the side wall of the car, as the case may be. Nuts 12 are threaded on the outer end portions of the bolts 10 and tightened against the outer face of the inner member 8. Said bolts 10 are preferably carriage bolts. That is, they are made square adjacent to the head so as to prevent the bolt from turning and the bolt head is made button-shape so as not to afford a hold for a wrench or other instrun'lent by the use of which the bolts might be otherwise forcibly turned without first removing the nuts.

On the outer face of the inner member 8 are four lugs 13 which are undercut at their ends or T-shaped as shown. These lugs are arranged in two alined pairs at the opposite side portions of the member. The outer mcn'iber 9 is provided with two parallel mortises or grooves 14 in its inner side, one for each alined pair of lugs 13. Said mortiscd portions have ribs 15 extending lengthwise thereof which are adapted to [it the undercuts or notches 16 of the lugs 13 on the inner member 8. The outer member 9 has an outwardly projecting bracket portion comprising a horizontal web 17 which is a continuation of the end wall of the mortised portion of the member. At the outer edge of the web 17 is an upstanding arcuate doorretaining and guiding lug 18; and said web and lug are sti fened by a rib 19.

Extending from the middle of the open end of the mortised portion of the member 9 the car below the door opening and near the.

is an ear 20 which is arranged to overlap a similar ear 21 on the inner member 8 when the outer member is slid thereon and the end wall of the mortised portion bears against the two lugs 13 adjacent thereto. The overlapping ears 20, 21 are provided with registering perforations through which a securing bolt 22 is inserted into the side sill 11 or side wall of the car, as the case may be. As shown, the bolt is inserted through the side sill and secured on the inner side thereof by a nut 28.

The door guide brackets 5, 6, are located so that their web portions 17 are just below the bottom edge of the door and the lug 18 projects above said bottom edge, and until the door is moved to clear the brackets, the outer members 9 cannot be slid oil the inner members 8 even if the bolts 22 should be removed. Therefore, as the nuts 12 on the bolts 10 are incased within the pockets provided by the spaces in the mortises 1% between the lugs 13 and cannot be removed until the outer member 9 is slid off the inner member 8, obviously the door lock has to be opened before the door can be moved to clear the brackets. The locks of the freight car doors are usually sealed after the loaded car is closed, and if the door is opened by an unauthorized person, the broken seal would be evidence that the car has been opened and the contents removed or tam pered with. It has been found from experience, however, that cars have been burglarized without breaking theseal by re moving the ordinary door-guiding and re taining brackets and then replacing them to hide the outward evidence that the car had been opened,

Obviously, my device admits of considerable modification without departing from myinvention, and, therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the specific construction and arrangement shown.

hat I claim is:

1. A guiding and retaining bracket for outside doors comprising, in combination, a member secured to the outer side of the car body by securing bolts which are in serted from the inside of the car body and having nuts on their outer ends, said member having undercut lugs projecting from its outer face, and a second member having a mortised portion arranged to slidably fit said undercut lugs and arranged and adapt ed to cover said first mentioned member, said second mentioned member having an outwardly offset extension adapted to cooperate with the edge portion of the door.

2. A guiding and retaining bracket for outside doors comprising, in combination, a member which. is perforated and secured to the outer side of the car bodybelow the door opening but near the plane of the bottom edge of the door by bolts which are in serted through the perforations from the inner side of the car body and having nuts on their outer ends, said member having a pair of vertically alined undercut lugs on its outer face respectively above and below the bolt perforations therein, asecond member mortised to slidably fit said undercut lugs and removable therefrom only in an upward direction, said second mentioned member being arranged and adapted to conceal the nuts on the ends of the securing bolts and having an outwardly offset eX- tension projecting above the plane of the bottom edge of the door, means independent of said securing bolts for securing said two mentioned bracket members to the car body.

3. A guiding and retaining bracket for outside doors comprising, in combination, a member secured to the outer side of the car body adjacent to the door openingbya carriage bolt inserted through the side of the car body from the inside, a nut on the outer end of said carriage bolt adapted to be tightened against the outer face of said member, a second member slidably fitted and interlocked on the outer side of said first mentioned member and arranged and adapted to conceal the nut on said carriage bolt so as to prevent the removal of the latter, said second mentioned member having an offset extension arranged and adapted to overlap the edge portion of the door, and being removable from said first men-v tioned member only in the direction toward the edge of said door, said two mentioned bracket members having overlapped per-. forated ears, and a securing bolt inserted through said overlapped perforated ears and the side of the car.

Signed at Horton, Kansas, this 5th day of May, 1910.

JULIUS J. ACKER. Vitnesses WALTER F. Soorr, W. E. VVALLINGFORD. 

